Coils
Mysteries of the Dragon Within the Ordo Dracul circulate tales of the Order’s founder, who escaped his cursed state by transforming it. Legends describe Dracula walking beneath the sun, enduring ages without blood, and never succumbing to the Beast. No one knows if they’re true, but the stories ignite hope. Hope that the Kindred condition could be changed, and in time, risen above. Building on knowledge passed down through Dracula’s brides, the Ordo Dracul began to search for and refine ways to achieve transcendence. The Dragons scour the world seeking occult secrets to further their understanding of the Curse. They call the results, refined through rigorous self-control and clear-minded study, the Mysteries of the Dragon. Unlike Disciplines, which augment the body or bend the predatory aura, Coils manipulate and seek to change the very essence of the vampire. Each ties into a universal aspect of the Kindred condition, twisting the Curse and the Beast to the vampire’s benefit. Coils also don’t drain a vampire’s precious Vitae, although they may change the effects of some uses of Vitae. The Order argues quite a bit about where this pilgrimage is supposed to be going. There are those who say that the pinnacle of their research is the total dominion over all deathly banes. Others claim that true evolution lies in manipulating the Beast, not denying it. Some stick to the traditional stories, that transcendence is defiance of God or nature. Others see those beliefs as metaphors for the triumph of the vampire over the otherwise unknowable forces that created him. New Coils New Coils appear frequently, and old ones disappear. The Ordo Dracul makes a lot of progress, and also creates a lot of variations. There may be more than one way to achieve a particular effect, which you can customize to an individual character or the aesthetics of your stories. The arduous process of developing new Coils and Scales, or alternate powers for existing Coils, can be a fun part of an Order-heavy chronicle. Coils of the Dragon The Coils of the Dragon stand as proof that the Order’s methods bring results. Coils, like Disciplines, are on a ladder from one to five dots. With each dot comes a potent and everlasting change to a vampire’s accursed state. Through these changes the Dragons can circumvent banes, empower their blood, and form unions with the Curse far deeper than the average vampire. Some of the Defiant even think that the best way to counter a divine curse is to find a bigger curse and let the two clash. Upon joining the Ordo Dracul a vampire chooses a single Mystery. Each Mystery contains a Coil, which Mystery members commit themselves to researching and refining. At the pinnacle of every Coil, there is enlightenment, different for each Mystery. Achieving this will raise the vampire to an entirely new state of being. To date this pinnacle has never been confirmed to exist, but the Dragons consider what they have achieved evidence that they can achieve much more. System: A Dragon learns new tiers in his Mystery Coil for three Experiences per dot, and during character creation a player may spend one of his starting Discipline dots to take a dot in his Mystery Coil. Learning Coils outside a Dragon’s chosen Mystery is possible, but the ideological and personal differences between the adherents of different mysteries mean that a Dragon from a different path may have to prove himself. A Dragon can have no more dots in each non-Mystery Coil than he possesses dots in the Status (Ordo Dracul) Merit. Non-Mystery Coils cost four Experiences per new dot, and cannot be learned during character creation. Scales of the Dragon Dragons have performed countless ghastly experiments in the name of improvement, frequently on themselves, but mostly on others. The majority of these endeavors end in failure, with the death or maiming of the subject. But occasionally a Dragon’s research will bear unexpected fruit, and uncover a procedure that furthers the Mystery’s objectives. These are called Scales. Through Scales a Dragon can share with others aspects of his enlightened state. Kindred can be forced to sleep at night and wake during the day, mortals given a taste for blood, and ghouls made to last well beyond their natural span. But these procedures can be brutal, tantamount to torture, and carry side effects both physical and psychological. As such, Dragons who pursue them maintain private laboratories, secured against interlopers, in which they can carry out their experiments in peace. Such laboratories may represent uses of the Safe Place and Haven Merits. System: All Scales have a prerequisite Coil, a particular tier with which the Scale resonates. For Dragons who do not meet this prerequisite Scales cost two Experiences, if the prerequisite is met the Experience cost drops to one. Developing New Scales Coils evolve through study and experimentation, and new Scales are discovered in the process. Every Dragon strives to add to this body of knowledge, but developing a Scale is difficult. There exists no way to guarantee a procedure’s success, no hard and fast system for subverting the Curse. Experimentation is the only option. System: A Dragon who wants to develop a new Scale has a lot of ground work ahead of him. The process takes months and will tax both his resources and Humanity. • First, select a Coil to act as a prerequisite for the Scale, one that has effects similar to those the Scale will accomplish. This needn’t be a Coil the Dragon knows himself (or even one that currently exists), but the process will be easier if it is. • Next the Dragon must gather the proper components. This means acquiring test subjects, collecting occult texts and ingredients, and procuring a safe location in which to perform his experiment. A character with dots in the Haven, Herd or Resources merits (p. 112 and p.123) may temporarily commit some or all of those dots to the experiment, with each dot adding an additional die to the subsequent extended roll. If he does, those dots remain inaccessible until the experiment is finished or abandoned. • Make an extended roll of Intelligence + Medicine, Occult, or Science (the Storyteller decides the Skill), with each roll representing one week of experimentation. For every committed merit dot add one additional die to this roll. A character who went to a special effort to acquire unique components should be awarded an additional bonus for his efforts of one to five extra dice. The target number for this roll is the dot rating of the Scale’s prerequisite Coil times three if the Dragon meets the prerequisite, and the dot rating of the Scale’s prerequisite Coil times five if he doesn’t. Succeed or fail, the Dragon suffers a breaking point at Humanity 5 minus the dot rating of the prerequisite Coil. Assuming he is successful, he must still spend the normal experience to internalize the new Scale. Presenting a new Scale to his Mystery Kogaions is grounds for an immediate increase in Order status. Mystery of the Ascendant The Mystery of the Ascendant follows one strict doctrine: The sun is the enemy; to overcome its rays is to overcome all adversity. Initiates of the Mystery believe that by overcoming the banes of fire and sunlight a Dragon can in turn defeat her every infirmity. This is not to be mistaken with a return to mortality. Such a change would be seen as an exchange of weaknesses, rather than true transcendence, and would be likely to get a vampire laughed at and his research ignored. Scales of the Ascendant manipulate the boundary between life and death, pushing subject’s minds and bodies to their limits in an attempt to find the perfect “near life” state. Direct exposure to sunlight and fire, sleep deprivation, and medically induced death are common practices. All experiments have but one aim: To cure the vampire of his vulnerability to sunlight and allow the Dragon to walk in the day; lucid, unafraid, and uninjured. Coil of the Ascendant Surmounting the Daysleep • A Dragon will not be held down by the distant rays of the dawning sun, nor made weak by its celestial body. So long as she benefits from the blush of life (p. 90) the Dragon need not roll to resist her daily slumber, nor will she gain the Lethargic Condition (p. 305) for remaining active during the day. The Warm Face •• Before she can overcome the sun a Dragon must first make herself as she was when she walked beneath it. The blush of life now lasts 24 hours, instead of just one scene. Conquer the Red Fear ••• The uninitiated may fear the light, but the Dragon does not. A Dragon who has learned this Coil no longer risks frenzy from exposure to fire or sunlight (p. 103). She may stand next to a blazing bonfire or stare into the rising sun and retain total self control (though the latter will still be quite painful). Peace with the Flame •••• To conquer the bane of fire is one of the most significant victories a Dragon can achieve on her path to ascension. So long as she benefits from the blush of life she takes only lethal damage from fire, not aggravated. If she also has dots in the Resilience Discipline (p. 141) it further magnifies her endurance, with each dot reducing one point of fire damage from lethal to bashing. Sun’s Forgotten Kiss ••••• This Coil represents the closest the Mystery of the Ascendant has ever come to achieving Dracula’s defeat of the sun. When activating the blush of life the Dragon may spend additional Vitae. For each extra Vitae she spends the Dragon counts her Blood Potency as one dot lower, to a minimum of one dot, for determining the interval at which sunlight harms her (p. 102). Sample Scales of the Ascendant Day-Wake Conditioning Prerequisite Coil: Surmounting the Daysleep Procedure: The subject, a vampire, must resist the Daysleep until the compounding penalties of the Lethargic Condition (p. 305) reduce his resistance roll to a chance die. He may then slumber, but only at dusk, and only in a brightly lit chamber. Traditionally this was accomplished with large quantities of candles, but recent practitioners have found high-wattage incandescent lights to be just as effective. Outcome: This subject’s sleep cycle is reversed — he wakes at dawn at though it were dusk, and slumbers at night instead of during the day. The condition persists indefinitely, so long as the subject continues to slumber in a brightly lit location every night. Failure to do so for more than two days consecutively undoes the Scale’s effects. Epidermal Shielding Bath Prerequisite Coil: Sun’s Forgotten Kiss Procedure: The Dragon fills a large vessel, generally a bathtub, with an alchemical mixture of blood, salt, pulped human fat, and other arcane ingredients. A Kindred subject is then submerged completely in the bath, and must remain submerged for a full hour while the Dragon slowly bleeds Vitae into the mixture. This last step may be performed while submerged if the subject is the Dragon herself. Outcome: For every point of Vitae spilled into the bath increase the subject’s effective Humanity by one when determining damage dealt by sunlight (p. 102). This boon lasts for 24 hours, beginning the moment the subject emerges. Flesh Graft Treatment Prerequisite Coil: Peace with the Flame Procedure: Using a system of skin grafts and mortal blood transfusions the Dragon coaxes dead flesh into an almost living state, allowing for the rapid recovery of grievous wounds. Skin grafts are prepared 24 hours in advance, and allowed to soak in fresh human blood during that time. To begin the treatment, she wraps the grafts tightly around damaged regions, then injects them with human blood no more than a minute old. Outcome: The subject’s flesh is briefly reinvigorated to a near living state. In Kindred this allows for aggravated damage to be healed with Vitae as though it were lethal (p. 91). Mortals become able to recover lethal damage with the expenditure of Vitae. Of course, since most humans do not possess Vitae to expend, the Dragon must include it in the injection. In this case the Scale also induces a stage-two blood bond (p. 99) in the subject, and may also use the process to create a ghoul. Mystery of the Wyrm The common view of vampirism treats the condition as a curse, a supernatural affliction of body and soul. Initiates of the Wyrm spurn this notion. Within their doctrine the Requiem is a blessing. But for all its power the Beast is savage and easily roused to panic. The Mystery of the Wyrm intends to correct this, to refine the Beast and make it obedient to a Dragon’s desires. Scales of the Wyrm are savage, even by Order standards; subjects are dissected, or ravaged by frenzy. These experiments focus on guiding the Beast, and the augmentation of a vampire’s natural prowess. Coil of the Wyrm Stir the Beast • Before the Beast can be tamed a Dragon must first know how to wake it. For a point of Willpower he may enter frenzy unprompted. When he does so the Dragon selects a target or goal, no more than a few words, which becomes the objective of his frenzy. He has no more control over his actions than he would in an involuntary frenzy (p. 103), and all rolls to escape frenzy before the stated objective is met are made at a –2 die penalty. When the original goal is no longer pressing or possible, the frenzy ends. Using Stir the Beast is a reflexive action, and it can be used to avoid involuntary frenzy. Beast’s Hunger •• The Beast provides all Kindred with the tools they need to be apex predators; a Dragon need only learn how to tap them. Whenever he frenzies, voluntarily or involuntarily, add the Dragon’s dots in Coils of the Wyrm to his Blood Potency for determining the acuity of his Kindred senses (p. 90) and intensity of his predatory aura (p. 91). Leash the Beast ••• As he comes to know the Beast, and the Beast him, the Dragon may direct it with greater ease. Riding the wave (p. 105) no longer costs Willpower to attempt, and he adds his dots in Coils of the Wyrm as a bonus when attempting to ride the wave. Beast’s Power •••• The Beast is a source of unlimited power and savagery, held back by mortal cowardice and inhibition. The Dragon can free himself, and by extension his Beast, of these restraints. When he enters frenzy the Dragon may opt to forego all resistance, falling into a state that will not cease until the Beast is sated (though he may still ride the wave). If he does so the Dragon adds his Blood Potency to his Defense, Health, and Speed for the duration of the frenzy. Eternal Frenzy ••••• By this point the Dragon and his Beast are close to becoming one. He seethes with power at every moment, wielding his inner monster like a weapon against all challengers. While he is in frenzy the Dragon will not fall into torpor even if all his Health levels are filled with lethal damage. Should he end frenzy with all his Health boxes full of lethal damage, the Dragon immediately succumbs to torpor. Fortunately, he may now retain his frenzy past the end of the scene, riding the wave from impulse to impulse until he is destroyed, or sleep takes him. (He may also choose to leave frenzy at the end of any scene.) Sample Scales of the Wyrm Augmented Vitae Draught Prerequisite Coil: Beast’s Power Procedure: Needles, glass tubing, and an air-tight container must be acquired and cleansed in an alchemical solution before performing this Scale. Once ready, the Dragon inserts the needles into key veins in his chest, arms and legs. Then he spends a single action making his blood flow, equivalent to using Physical Intensity (p. 91). Outcome: The Dragon’s physical prowess remains unaltered; instead the Vitae drains out through glass tubes and into the storage container, where it remains potent for a number of hours equal to his Blood Potency. If imbibed by a mortal during this time the Vitae augments her physical attributes in the same manner in which the Dragon would have augmented his own. In a human host, however, Vitae circulates and endures for a much longer period, bolstering her physique for an entire scene. There are some side effects to this process. The solution is extremely poisonous, and the augmentations hazardous to the mortal’s physical well being. At the end of the scene the subject collapses and takes levels of bashing damage equal to twice the Vitae invested in the Scale. She also develops blood addiction (p. 99). Kindred Sense Endowment Prerequisite Coil: Beast’s Hunger Procedure: The Dragon prepares a concoction of blood and bone, which is boiled and distilled over the course of two hours into a noxious burnt sludge. This substance is subsequently applied to a mortal subject’s nose and eyes, with the rest being ingested. This is a sickening procedure, soon after which the subject vomits out the ingested portion of the draught. Outcome: The subject is sickened, but gains the ability to see and smell blood as though she were a vampire with two dots of Blood Potency (p. 89). The subject also acquires a hunger for human blood, as a newly embraced vampire would, though it offers nothing more than the risk of Integrity loss and terrible sickness. All these effects endure for approximately 24 hours. Surgical Heart Removal Prerequisite Coil: Eternal Frenzy Procedure: Over the course of about six hours the Dragon surgically cuts out a Kindred subject’s heart (which is customarily stored in a black onyx box), and re-binds the veins in a mockery of their original order. This process is both risky and demanding, requiring an extended Intelligence + Medicine roll with a target of ten successes and an interval of one hour. If successful, this procedure can be reversed with an identical roll. Dramatic Failure: The heart of the subject is destroyed in the process. The shock is so terrible and sudden that the subject flies instantly into a mindless frenzy before succumbing to Final Death at the end of the scene. Failure: The heart of the subject is disconnected improperly. She immediately falls into torpor as if staked, and will not recover until her heart is returned to its proper location. Success: Without a heart the subject cannot be staked. She also cannot gain additional Vitae from feeding, though she may still spend Vitae previously stored or gained through blood sorcery rites. Should her body be destroyed the subject will regenerate from the heart itself after the proper interval of torpor. Should the heart be destroyed she dies instantly. Exceptional Success: All the normal benefits of an Exceptional Success on an extended roll, but nothing more. Mystery of the Voivode In blood there is power; this is the creed of the King. While other Dragons concern themselves with banes and the Beast, those who follow the Mystery of the Voivode focus on the blood bond. They aim to rise above the petty politics and slaveries of the Damned, becoming beings of pure and transcendent will. In life, Dracula was called Voivode, and was not questioned. In death, his disciples will reclaim his authority. The Scales of this Mystery focus on blood and servitude. Initiates of the Mystery commit psychological torture; inflict Vitae addiction; and experiment in the creation of blood bonds, ghouls, and other Kindred. Given the nature of the Mystery’s objectives, most Dragons practice these arts in absolute secrecy, lest the local ruler…misunderstand. Coil of the Voivode Taste of Fealty • In her first step to becoming king, a Dragon forms chains of blood, binding others into service. Her Vitae becomes dramatically more addictive, with each point counting as two for the purposes of Vitae addiction (p. 99). What’s more, those who are addicted to her find all other blood shallow and tasteless. Addicts can only resolve the Deprived Condition (p. 302) resulting from blood addiction by drinking the Vitae of someone with this Coil. Into the Fold •• The bond between a subject and his master should be akin to that of family. The Dragon develops blood sympathy (p. 98) towards those she has blood bound, and they her. A stage-one blood bond is treated as four times removed, stage-two three times, and stage-three only twice removed. If the Dragon is already related to a subject, use the closer connection when determining bonuses. Call to Serve ••• As a future king, the Dragon does not have time to spend cajoling others and slowly binding them with her blood. They must want to follow, and they must want to follow immediately. When building a blood bond (p. 99) the Dragon may bleed additional Vitae to expedite the process. Three Vitae will take her subject straight into a stage-two blood bond, while five pushes him all the way to stage three with a single sip. This Vitae must be shared over no more than a few minutes, but is not subject to limits on Vitae per turn. Voivode Undisputed •••• The voivode is above all others; none may command her or hold her in thrall. Those connected via blood sympathy gain no bonus to discipline usage against her. Additionally, she adds her blood sympathy bonus to rolls to resist blood bonds and contest the predatory aura (p. 91) of anyone she has bound. The Vast Dynasty ••••• To a normal vampire, the Embrace is a dangerous act that erodes the perpetrator’s Humanity. But a king requires kin to watch her kingdom while she sleeps. This Coil removes the automatic Humanity loss associated with Embracing a mortal. The act of Embracing is instead a breaking point at Humanity 3; the Dragon adds one die in addition to any other modifiers on the roll to avoid detachment. Sample Scales of the Voivode Blood Cleansing Ritual Prerequisite Coils: Taste of Fealty Procedure: The Dragon prepares a wash of animal blood and viscera, mixed with several draughts of her own Vitae. She uses this to perform a “washing” procedure: The Dragon repeatedly dumps this solution into the subject’s nose and mouth. As the implementation of this Scale is tantamount to torture, subjects are typically restrained. Outcome: This process is repeated once for every point of Vitae the Dragon invested into the solution. Each time, if the victim is blood bound to another vampire, roll a number of dice equal to the Dragon’s Blood Potency minus the blood bond creator’s Blood Potency. Success on any roll permanently removes the blood bond. Despite the inclusion of the Dragon’s Vitae, it does not create a bond towards the Dragon. Fealty’s Reward Prerequisite Coils: Call to Serve Procedure: This Scale may only be performed on a mortal subject who is in a stage-three blood bond towards the Dragon. The Dragon feeds on the subject till all but his last Health box is filled with lethal damage, then slits her wrists and spills her gains into a basin. The subject must then drink that Vitae, and be allowed to rest for 48 hours. Outcome: When the subject awakes he shall find that he has become a ghoul (p. 100), filled to his natural capacity with Vitae. This state will last for a full year, instead of just a month, and may be renewed only by the Dragon through the standard expenditure of Vitae. Should this condition ever expire the ghoul dies immediately, and rises as a draugr at the next new moon. Mass Embrace Prerequisite Coils: The Vast Dynasty Procedure: First things first, the Dragon must locate and gather a group of mortals she seeks to embrace. Given the risks of this Scale, and weakness of the Dragon upon its completion, she would be well-advised to bring several allies as well. Subjects are brought together in a low, concave space capable of containing large quantities of liquid (in this case, blood). The Dragon then completes the following steps. First, she hemorrhages all of her Vitae, bleeding it onto the ground. Then she moves from subject to subject, sucking them dry of blood and bleeding her gains into the collective pool. Finally the Dragon must sip from the pool at her feet, and inject the blood into the now-dead subjects’ veins. After this, though it is not a formal step of the Scale, she should run for cover. Outcome: Subjects are Embraced, and rise with Blood Potency 1 and a single point of Vitae. Roll a chance die for each subject. Those for whom it comes up a success awake in full control of their actions, while those who fail fly instantly into Frenzy. Those unfortunates for whom the roll comes up a dramatic failure rise as draugr. Like an unmodified single Embrace, this costs a Humanity dot. Sanguinary Invigoration Prerequisite Coil: Into the Fold Procedure: Using a large syringe, the Dragon extracts Vitae, and mixes it with a combination of arcane ingredients. Within ten minutes of preparation this cocktail must be injected into a living vessel, human or animal, or it loses its value. One point of Vitae is required. Outcome: Despite being injected with a noxious poison the subject is at no risk of being killed, being blood bound, or suffering Vitae addiction. Instead he is invigorated, jittering like a man on a stimulant binge. It’s a mixed feeling…he’s a little shaky, but he also gets a touch of the vigorously alive feeling a ghoul experiences. For him this is where the effects end, but to the vampire this Scale offers much more. The vampire treats her Blood Potency as four dots lower when determining whether or not she can feed from the subject, and four dots higher when determining the distance at which she can smell his blood. The invigoration lasts one week, though the side effects may or may not wear off sooner. This means that even elder Kindred, with high Blood Potency, can feed from the subject of Sanguine Invigoration. But because they would be consuming the Dragon’s blood along with the subject’s, other vampires run the risk of becoming addicted or blood bound to the Dragon. On the other hand, those already addicted to the Dragon’s blood will find the subject’s blood as satisfying as that of the Dragon herself.